Tringo began it\'s life in Second Life. Created by Second Life user Kermitt Quirk, Tringo combines Tetris and Bingo. It\'s been a rousing success in Second Life, where Quirk sells the game to users. Now, Crave has picked it up to publish it for Game Boy Advance. Although we\'ve seen successful mods (most notably Counter Strike) picked up for publication by game companies, I believe this is the first time an in-game user creation has been published for play without a dependency on the original game. Second Life is the only game I know of that grants the full Intellectual Property rights to their users for any and all user-created models, code and characters. This individual control of the IP rights is crucial to making possible such a deal.
More can be read about the Second Life history of Tringo in
this great post on Clickable Culture.
And the official press release follows:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Crave Entertainment Put the Pieces Together With TringoSmash hit puzzle game comes to consolesLos Angeles, Calif.-September 19, 2005-Crave Entertainment, a leading publisher of console videogames, today announced the signing of the Tringo license. Developed by Kermitt Quick, Tringo combines elements of puzzle games and bingo for an amazingly addictive game that\'s quick to play and easy to master. The game became a huge hit within weeks of introduction on Second Life, a virtual world that encourages players to develop their own content.
\"Tringo has developed a huge following in a remarkably short time,\" says Rob Dyer, president and chief operating officer of Crave Entertainment. \"It really demonstrates that there is still a high demand for simple, well-executed gameplay.\"
In Tringo, players start with a blank board on which they must place 35 game pieces that appear one by one during the timed turns. Points are scored by fitting the pieces to form solid blocks and clearing the blocks from the board. You\'ve got to move quickly but carefully because missed pieces lose points.
Scheduled for release in November 2005, Tringo will be available for the Nintendo Game Boy? Advance handheld system with a MSRP of $19.99.